§ MR. A. ALLEN (Christchurch)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to a petition presented to Sir John Anderson, High Commissioner of the Federated Malay States, and signed by nearly all the loading Chinese merchants, tin miners, and shopkeepers there resident, urging that legislative enactments providing for gambling farms in those States have been the direct cause of the degradation of tens of thousands of their countrymen, and praying that some change may be made in the financial arrangements of the States in order that the Government may cease to derive revenue from gambling farms, more especially as the revenues of the Government have for years greatly exceeded the expenditure and are continuing to show very large surplus incomes.
§ MR. RUNCIMANI can only refer the hon. Member to the Answer given in this House on November 12th to a similar Question asked by the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland.†